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The Balkanized Church
A new blog entry by James Copple: Balkanization: To break up (as a region or group) into smaller and hostile units. Webster’s Dictionary Balkanization is a term coined to describe the political and ethnic divisions in that region of the world known as the Balkans. For the past 30 years I have worked internationally in a v... Read more
Posted on April 28, 2010 11:43 AM
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A new blog entry by James Copple: Blue Cross Kenya sponsors a group of moms and their children living in the Korogocho Slums in Nairobi who have given up distilling homebrew alcohol and abusing their own product. Recovering moms and their ... Read more
Posted on April 5, 2010 9:24 AM

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How SAI Can Help You

Meth Training Center

The production, distribution, and use of methamphetamine have created a major crisis in health and safety for our country. Meth activity is a primary cause in the rapid increase of crime and violence in rural and urban areas. Meth is the most compelling and complicated of the drug issues facing this generation. The United Nations expects it to be the #1 drug problem internationally over the next five years.

Because of the nature of clandestine meth labs, an effective response to meth requires a comprehensive and coordinated effort across an unusual array of sectors: public officials, first responders/fire/EMS/HazMat, law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, corrections, prevention, treatment, environmental clean up, public health, child protection, education, media, and community organizations. Meth labs are not defined or restricted to specific neighborhoods in communities. They are mobile and they are highly toxic.

Many of the problems associated with meth are new and require new relationships and new protocols for local, state, and federal agencies. Communities and states need access to cutting-edge information, training, and effective practices about strategies to fight this many-headed monster. Currently there is no centralized coordinated center to provide cutting-edge information or facilitate training for the public and private organizations seeking to confront this new challenge.

SAI is participating in the launch of a National Meth Training and Technical Assistance Center along with Terree Schmidt-Whelan, Ph.D. and Priscilla Lisicich, Ph.D with regional training sites located throughout the United States. The Center will:

  • Serve as a national repository and dissemination vehicle on all topics related to meth.
  • Convene state and local planning processes, replicating the current Meth Summit design that facilitates the coordinated and integrated response to meth across sectors (i.e. Lab Cleanup, Law Enforcement Safety, Environmental Contamination, Drug Endangered Children, Treatment, Prevention, and Community Mobilization) and across jurisdictions.
  • Collect, analyze, and disseminate best practices across the many sectors of the problem.
  • Develop a web-based information sharing system to speed dissemination of effective practices.
  • Facilitate “communities of practice” within and between the various sectors involved in responding to the meth issue to promote innovation and change.
  • Publish policy briefs, newsletters, and tool kits to support the capacity of agencies, communities, and states to respond to the meth issue effectively.
  • Facilitate “Policy to Practice Forums” at the State and Local level to identify and promote effective implementation of policies and strategies that demonstrate results in reducing meth production, distribution, and use.

Meth Summit Process

Methamphetamine is one of the most compelling and challenging problems facing America’s families, communities, local, state, and federal governments, and the private sector. Its insidious reach engages more stakeholders than any other social issue out there today. It also provides an incredible opportunity to rethink and redesign the ways in which different systems work together to produce positive change.

Horizontal or Cross-Sector Coordination

The Meth Summit process does this by bringing together the many domains affected by the problem: Fire/EMS/Haz-Mat; Law Enforcement, Courts, Prosecutors, and other aspects of the Criminal Justice System; Treatment; Prevention and Community Coalitions; Child Protective Services/Adult Protective Services and other Social Workers; Public Health, Environmental Quality/Control; Public/Private Schools, Higher Education, and Youth Services/Programs; all aspects of the print and electronic media; Chambers of Commerce, Retailers and Employers; Nurse Home Visitors, Medical Personnel and hospitals; Landlords and Property Owners; and other key stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

Vertical Coordination

The process also facilitates the integration of strategies across levels of the public and private sectors by involving perspectives from the agency/organizational level to local, county, state, and federal coordination on the many facets of the meth problem.

Summit Process

The summit process uses a practical and effective logic model to gather input from hundreds of participants in a short amount of time and produce actionable recommendations through a three step process of identifying the problems, barriers, and solutions related to methamphetamine production, distribution, and use.

More Information

For more information regarding Meth Summit sites and sample summit agendas and presentations, click on links below:

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